Two...Three Weeks in the Bahamas
Hummm... this has been an interesting time for us. We left the super comfortable marina environment of Naval Air Station Boca Chica, FL and sailed, then motor-sailed to Bimini on Monday, 6 April. We arrived just after lunch the next day. Our previous international immigration and customs check-ins have typically been, significant events. Plus-up for Bahamas! Their on-line customs and health visa process was great. We arrived with fees paid and a good understanding of the paperwork needed. I left Janet aboard Tango and walked into Alice Town to start the process. When I arrived back at Tango, Janet looked at me as asked "what's wrong?" I'd only been gone 15 minutes! All done, no muss, no fuss. Well done Bahamas!

We tied up at the Bimini Big Game Club marina in Alice Town Monday just after hide tide. They have fixed wooden docks, so we used our batter boards and fenders to protect Tango from the persistent East wind jamming us on the outside "T" dock pilings. The wind and 2.5 kt in-out tidal current, parallel to the dock, was interesting but we gently tucked in and stayed on the "T" for about a week. The only excitement was watching the many super yachts and good-sized sailboat CRASH the dock (remember the wind and current); and I'm talkin' full-on hard crashes. Twice Tango nearly got slammed by the not-too-expert shiphandling around us. Janet would run for a fender until I stopped her and we move to the opposite end of Tango! We finally moved to an inside berth with A LOT of help from a couple from a neighboring sailboat. Their help earned them a Janet homemade "junk-pancake breakfast" and drinks later. Because of the strong outgoing current and my desire to back in, we had to "improvise" getting Tango's bow to turn into the current because our massive bow thruster simply couldn't do it! Great application of lines and experienced sailboaters got us tucked into a slip away from the "crazies". Now we could watch in shock and awe as they CRASHED into the somewhat pliant dock structure. The pilings are remarkably flexible...

Bimini was full of pleasant and helpful people. We got a Bahamas SIM card for our travel cellphone, got groceries when needed, and enjoyed several walks. The island is pretty beatup and recovery seems to be slow. It was a bit sad. We did walk down to the super glitzy new resort with its cruise ship mooring facility, fancy but empty shopping and restaurant areas. The two resort marinas were completely empty. A lonesome bartender that Janet befriended explained that 2 cruise ships had cancelled because of the wind driven waves, and the tour season really opens in May.

We waffled on where to go after Bimini. The weather, is the weather, wherever we go, whether good or bad. Its never cooperative and we wanted to wait until we had a reasonable weather window forecasted. We chatted about going to Grand Bahama Island (to the north), Bullocks Harbor in the north part of the Berry Islands (directly east across the Grand Bahama Bank), then decided to head for Chub Cay which is the southern most of the Berry Islands diagonally across the Grand Bahama Bank. We left Bimini for the overnight passage just before supper on Thursday, 14 April. This was a nose in the wind, dark night shallow Bank crossing (dah... its Tango weather, why would it be easy?). Tango's forward-looking sonar showed that "ahead" wasn't a disaster during the dark night. I have to say navigation in 10-12 feet of water isn't comfortable for Tango or John.

Grand Bahama Bank was interesting. As we passed over dips and humps we'd experience a period of strong current or turbulence. We'd immediately slow from 6 kts to 2 kts, then a few minutes later jump up to 8 knots then settle back to our expected 6 kt speed of advance. This happened many times too. At first we'd look into the water to see if we dragging something or were scraping the bottom just in case the Forward Looking sonar was lying). The next afternoon we exited the Bank and navigated into the Northwest Passage. Here we experienced a strong incoming current and upwelling wave caused by the immediate rise from 1000ft depths in the NW Passage to 15ft depths on the Bank. In a quarter mile all that water squeezes up and onto the Banks. It's going to make waves, right?! Of course, then a thunderstorm started to form. Luckily, we navigated the tiny curvy entrance to Chub Cay marina, passed the many Super-Duper Super Yachts, and tied up to floating concrete docks with a marina helper coiling lines and hooking up the shore power cable while explaining what was available... just as the rain and wind hit. This was late afternoon on Thursday, 14 April.

Chub Cay marina was a pretty nice surprise, especially after the conditions we saw in Bimini. The resort is the only thing on the Cay. It includes an airstrip, very nice marina, private homes, rental homes, hotel, infinity pool, carefully manicured lawns and property, a fuel dock, etc. While not cheap, it was a lot less expensive than Bimini and way nicer. It is a first class place with good docks and a professional and attentive staff. The staff actually live in a small resort village when they are off duty. Their cottages are colorful, air conditioned, and have Direct TV and internet too. Again, due to weather, we delayed our departure a day for an acceptable weather window (what a laugh the term "weather window" is...). Our extra day was Easter! The resort put on a really nice Easter Egg hunt for all the kids in the resort. Well done Chub Cay Resort.

On leaving Chub Cay we needed to get ourselves to a place where we could safely anchor and wait out a strong high pressure isobar crunch that would cause 25-30kt NE to ENE winds for a "few" days. After talking with lots of people, especially a knowledgeable person from the Ocean Cruising Club, we decided to head for the northern part of the Eleuthera Islands near Spanish Wells. We left Monday morning, 18 April. The trip up the Northwest Providence Passage and on to the Eleuthera bank was unremarkable with one exception. We caught a fish! It was a 3ft barracuda, so we let it go after all the attendant excitement. During the deep water crossing we flew inner and outer head sails successfully for a whopping 30 minutes during the calm, on-the-nose, wind 10-hour passage. As we crossed on to the Eleuthera Bandi a thunderstorm washed Tango really well but cleared just in time for our passage into the harbor. We anchored for the night in calm winds with extra chain out (110 feet in 11 ft of water, 10:1 scope!). Calm, quiet, so nice.

Tuesday afternoon (19 April) the wind started to blow, a bit. We wanted to check the anchor, so Janet jumped into the water and tried to find it... no luck. After lunch both of us swam out to find it. I was able to follow the chain and get closer before the silt made things disappear. While I swam a Coast Guard search pattern, Janet watched the silt I'd stirred up clear and spotted the anchor. We hooked a small buoy to it just for fun. After an early dinner the wind picked up to the forecasted 20-25 kts and we noticed the nice normal "smile" that the chartplotter plots as we swing around the anchor got a little "wonky". Humm... must be the chain straightening out, says I. Several hours later... in the dark... "Janet, wake up... no hurry but we need to fix this damn anchor". We were slowly drifting, pulling the anchor through the mud about 50 ft every 4 hours. Yup... Tango has finally dragged anchor!

Just after midnight, with a bright full moon lighting the harbor, we pulled up the anchor and reset it in a different spot. This time, in the 12.5 ft water, I put out 205ft of chain. So much for the traditional 7 : 1 chain scope. By about 3:30AM Wednesday, 20 April it was obvious that the anchor was staying put, so far, so good. Janet did an excellent job of controlling Tango's orientation into the wind and harbor position making this a quick and easy operation. Janet tucked back to sleep while I continued anchor watch. The biggest part of the blow is supposed to begin tomorrow (Wednesday) and continue through Friday (22 April) with the wind finally settling down slowly over the weekend. Here is the "big picture" weather forecast curtesy of our Iridium-Go satellite link:

.SYNOPSIS AND FORECAST
. .ATLC STATIONARY FRONT FROM 31N63W TO 24N77W. WITHIN 25N76W TO 23N78W TO 25N80W TO 27N76W TO 28N71W TO 25N76W NE TO E WINDS 20 TO 25 KT. SEAS LESS THAN 8 FT...EXCEPT 8 TO 10 FT E OF 73W. .24 HOUR FORECAST STATIONARY FRONT DISSIPATED. WITHIN 23N79W TO 23N80W TO 26N80W TO 27N75W TO 26N75W TO 23N79W NE TO E WINDS 20 TO 25 KT. SEAS LESS THAN 8 FT...EXCEPT TO 8 FT NE OF BAHAMAS. .48 HOUR FORECAST CONDITIONS IMPROVE. WINDS 20 KT OR LESS. SEAS LESS THAN 8 FT.

Humm... 48 more hours to go...Well, its almost midnight on Friday 22 Apr and the wind seems to have finally started to decrease, a little. After the blow blows-out on Monday probably, we'll explore Spanish Wells. This will include picking up a mooring ball in Spanish Wells harbor, at least four dinghy trips refueling using our fuel jugs at a gas station that has a dinghy dock. After that... Spanish Wells is supposed to a delight. More on that later.

So just what do we do all day long on the anchor in 20-25 kts of wind for days and days for more than a week. We make water, charge batteries, and tend to boat projects. Swim when possible, cook food, clean dishes, stand the anchor watch, sleep (maybe nap is a better description), stand the anchor watch, stand the anchor watch again, and play dominos. We read and write too... then we stand the anchor watch again.

That's what are are up too. Pictures will be added when we get good internet.